Fun Facts About Waterloo

Here are some interesting and fun facts about the Region of Waterloo.

• The Regional Municipality of Waterloo includes the cities of Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge and the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot and North Dumfries.
• ·       The Regional Municipality of Waterloo was created when the former Waterloo County was dissolved in 1973.
• ·       Waterloo County originally consisted of five townships: Waterloo, Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot and North Dumfries.
• ·         The former Township of Waterloo included present day Waterloo and Kitchener, as well as Preston, Hespler and Blair, which are now part of Cambridge. North Dumfries contained Galt which is also now part of Cambridge.
• ·         Waterloo was settled in 1804 by German Mennonite pioneers from Pennsylvania. Old Order Mennonites can be seen driving horse and buggy’s in and around Waterloo. They look a lot like Amish, but they are not Amish (I do not know the distinction).
• ·         The founder of Waterloo is Abraham Erb, a German Mennonite from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
• ·         Today Old Order Mennonites can be seen driving their horse-drawn buggy’s in and around Waterloo Region. The Mennonites look a lot like Amish from Pennsylvania, but they are not Amish (I do not know the distinction).
• ·         Waterloo is named after Waterloo, Belgium, the site of the Battle of Waterloo (1815).
• ·         The present-day population of Waterloo is about 135,000. This figure includes about 25,000 temporary students living on and off campus. The population of nearby Kitchener is 247,000 and Cambridge is 134,000. The entire Region has a population of about 534,000.
• ·         Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge together make up the 11^h Largest metropolitan area in Canada and the 5^th largest in Ontario.
• ·         The University of Waterloo was founded in 1957 and has about 30,000 students. Wilfred Laurier University was founded as Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in 1911 and has about 12,000 students.
• ·         Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a community college with five campuses in Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge.
• ·         The Region of Waterloo is served by two publicly funded school boards: The Waterloo Region District School Board and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board. Both boards offer full day programs for school-age children and youth starting with Junior and Senior Kindergarten (age 4 and 5 years) through high school grade twelve. Publicly funded transportation is available where schools are not within safe walking distance from home.
• ·         Waterloo is served by three nearby hospitals. The closest to Waterloo is Grand River Hospital, located in Kitchener just beyond Uptown Waterloo. Other hospitals in the Region are St. Mary’s General Hospital, also in Kitchener and Cambridge Memorial Hospital, in Cambridge.
• ·         Kitchener hosts the second largest Oktoberfest in the world outside of Germany. It begins the weekend prior to Canadian Thanksgiving (2^nd Monday of October) and attracts more than 700,000 visitors annually. It has been running since 1969.
• ·         Kitchener Waterloo together are called the Twin Cities. Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge are called the Tri-Cities. Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph is called the Golden Triangle.
• ·         Waterloo’s core is called Uptown and Kitchener’s core is called Downtown.
• ·         Weber Street is pronounced wee-ber not web-ber.